士丹利英语口语第 12 课: It's hard to believe. 这很难以置信。

Wei: I know Celine Dion and Jim Carrey are Canadian. 我知道席琳迪翁和金凯瑞是加拿大人。

Paul: Those are the easy ones! How about Brendan Fraser, Keanu Reeves, or Kim Cattrall from Sex and the City? 知道那些人太容易了！布兰登费雪、基努利瓦伊，或是《欲望城市》的金凯特萝，这些人你觉得如何？

Wei: Get out! They're all Canadian?? 少来了！他们也是加拿大人？？

Paul: Yep. And so are Mike Myers--a.k.a. Austin Powers, Pamela Anderson, James
Cameron... 是的。还有迈克迈尔斯——就是那个王牌大贱谍、帕梅拉安德森、詹姆斯卡麦隆……

Wei: Just a second...Pamela Anderson is Canadian?!? 等等……帕梅拉安德森是加拿大人？！？

Paul: Yes. I know. It's hard to believe. 是的。我了解。这很难以置信。

Trev: Geez. I had no idea those people are Canadian! 天啊。我不知道这些人是加拿大人！

Paul: And that doesn't even include athletes, like... 而且那还不包括运动员，像是……

Trev: OK! OK! We get the picture, Paul. [pointing] There's a Canadian flag. What's the story behind that? 够了！够了！我们都知道你的意思了，保罗。（指着外面）那里有面加拿大国旗。背后有什么故事吗？

Paul: The flag was changed to the present style before Canada's 100th birthday party in 1967. 那面旗子是在一九六七年加拿大的百年国庆典礼之前，改成目前的样式。

Trev: Why a leaf? 为什么要有那片叶子？

Paul: Well, maple trees are a Canadian symbol. And the maple leaf symbolizes Canadian unity. 嗯，枫树是加拿大的象征。而枫叶象征加拿大的族群融合。

Wei: Why red and white? 那为什么要用红色和白色呢？

Paul: These colours have been used during our history for war medals and Olympian's clothing. 这些颜色在我们的历史上，曾被用在战争勋章和奥运选手的衣服上。

Wei: Speaking of colors, why do Canadians spell it c-o-l-o-u-r-s? 说到颜色(colors)，为什么加拿大人拼成c-o-l-o-u-r-s？

Paul: That's a difference between Canadian and American English. 那是加拿大式英文和美式英文的不同之处。

Wei: Canadians spell differently? 加拿大人用不同的方式拼写？

Paul: Not often. But we use “-o-u-r”, like in neighbour, labour, flavour, etc. And Canadians often say “zed”, not “zee” for the last letter of the alphabet. 情况不多见啦。但我们拼成